The War In His Mind

Chapter 43

"I am your savior. I am your doomsday." O'Neil spoked in tones drenched in sorrow. "I am everything you need me to be, and nothing you do not."

Abraham kept his pistol close to O'Neil's face.

"Everything I have done is for your benefit...for your best. Every sorrow. Every pain. Every loss should be counted as a notch on the belt of your development. If not for me you would be dead in your failures. Defeated. Full of anguish. One who is like a leaf thrown into the river, trapped in the current of life."

Abraham remembered the dark figure that rescued him from death.

"What good father doesn't tremble at the thought of his first born son writhing in pain? What great man ever wants to see his people die?' O'Neil's face turned pail white. "You are the culmination of everything I've created."

Abraham felt a surge of anger course through his head. "I'm not your son..."

"You can try as hard as you'd like to live a lie. You can spend your days denying the very nature that created you. Yet you'll always feel me inside of you. With every test of leadership my thoughts will be within you..."

The stir in Abraham's stomach knew that O'Neil was right. It isn't possible to be made in the image of a creator and deny the nature of the creator within himself.

O'Neil pointed towards Natasha. His finger was aligned with her stomach. "...and within him...my legacy has already surpassed me and given me a grand-son."

Abraham jumped over the table separating the two and slammed his fist into the side of O'Neil's jaw. Two teeth flew into the corner of the room and a steady stream of blood dripped onto his chest. "How did you know?"

O'Neil coughed as blood drizzled down his neck. "Isn't that what creators do? I know you think I'm your enemy. I'm content with that."

"Oh? Are you?" Abraham said. There was unmistakable sarcasm in his voice.

"I gave you birth. I showed you who you are. I raised you through the war you waged...you're allowed to hate me."

O'Neil sat on the ground propped up against the stone walls. Abraham could see the beautiful buildings adorned in gold and ivory. "You've created so much...why have it end like this?"

"I'm dying, Abraham."

"You're what?"

"I'm dying." O'Neil said. Every word was said with a deliberate, heavy tone. His words were highly annunciated and sunk into Abraham like how the teeth of a lion would bite into a gazelle. "Okay?"

"I don't..."

"...understand?" O'Neil cut him off. "I'm an old man trapped in the representation of a forty year old. I look young and vibrant, but my body on Earth is giving out."

He heaved a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know how long I have to live..."

"And? I care why?"

"Because I need someone to take over the city when I'm gone. I need an heir. I need you." O'Neil raised his hand in the air and mimicked petting Abraham's cheek. "You were never a glitch. I created you with a specific purpose- to lead these people when I'm gone...however you see fit. You're the only hope this world has. That's why your book was empty. You needed to discover who you were for yourself. Yes... there were time when it seemed to be too much for you. That dark shadowy figure you saw several times? That was me watching over you. Guiding you. Protecting you...my son. I was always with you, Abraham."

"You realize I will undue everything you've ever done, right?"

"Let it be. It is the job of a leader to elevate his people farther than anyone has before... you will do what you must."